70th anniversary of famed homily against Nazi euthanasia program
August 03, 2011
L’Osservatore Romano has paid tribute to Blessed Clemens August von Galen 70 years after the Bishop of Munster preached his famed homily against the Nazi’s euthanasia program, which targeted the disabled and mentally ill.
“Have you, have I the right to live only so long as we are productive, so long as we are recognized by others as productive?” the prelate preached in his 1941 homily. “Woe to mankind, woe to our German nation if God's Holy Commandment 'Thou shalt not kill,' which God proclaimed on Mount Sinai amidst thunder and lightning, which God our Creator inscribed in the conscience of mankind from the very beginning, is not only broken, but if this transgression is actually tolerated and permitted to go unpunished.”
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Further information:
- A bulwark against the aberration: Reporting the massacre of the mentally ill in Nazi Germany (L’Osservatore Romano)
- Cardinal Clemens von Galen Against Nazi Euthanasia (The History Place)
- Bl. Clemens August von Galen (Holy See)
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